


As Fast as You Can

by Alexannah



Series: Rockabye [2]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-26
Updated: 2014-01-26
Packaged: 2018-01-10 03:43:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1154458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alexannah/pseuds/Alexannah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How Susan saved her grandfather. No spoilers. [backstory]</p>
            </blockquote>





	As Fast as You Can

**Author's Note:**

> Could be read on own. Set pre-1963, no spoilers. Probably not entirely canonical but I wouldn't know as I've only seen the first classic series so far.

The Doctor was tired.

It was one of his infrequent visits to Gallifrey. He was sitting on the edge of the Caza Ravine, legs hanging over the side, looking down to where the russet rock face turned to inky blackness, the breeze ruffling the red grass around him. Still dressed in his human clothes, he looked as out of place as was fitting for him.

Since the first time he had visited the ravine, he had been running without stopping. Oh, he had returned to his home planet every now and then, sometimes to refuel, sometimes because he was hit with a nostalgic desire to smell a flower or gaze up at the sky he had grown up under. But it was usually not long before he felt the itch to leave again.

The itch hadn’t come yet. He was lost in memories, of times before when he had come here.

The Caza Ravine was not so much a ravine in the rock, as a ravine in space itself. Nobody knew what lay at the bottom, if there even was a bottom. It was a legendary anomaly that interested many Time Lords, but few ever actually visited. For this reason, the Doctor didn’t expect company.

He was alone. Not just in that place, but in his life. The first time he had visited, so many years ago, he had been looking for an escape from the loneliness. From the pain, fresh then, that still gave him an ache now. A family torn apart, from his own stupidity.

He didn’t belong here. Not really. He belonged on Earth even less. So for most of his life, he had travelled solitary, his only companion the TARDIS that called him by name. Though the Doctor immersed himself in discovery, he could not escape the yearning for something more.

He knew he was nearing the end. His body was getting frailer, he could feel age sinking into his bones. It would be some years yet, but he could feel it growing nearer each day.

He knew regeneration felt like dying, and he was not looking forward to it. But he wasn’t even sure if he _could_ regenerate. Was he Time Lord enough? He wouldn’t know the answer to that one until the time came. His entire life could be nearing its end.

To be honest, he wasn’t entirely sure which eventuality he was hoping for.

The ravine was one of the few places in the universe that the Doctor could sit and think with a cool head—which was odd, really, considering how much of a mess he had been in the first time he visited. If the TARDIS hadn’t come ... well, he wouldn’t have needed to worry about dying of old age.

“Doctor?”

He looked round, startled out of his reverie. A teenage girl was standing a few feet away, looking at him in wonder. “Child, what are you doing here? It’s dangerous!”

“You’re right on the edge,” she replied. “Surely that’s more dangerous.”

“That’s not—” He got awkwardly to his feet and took a proper look at her. She was Academy age, maybe fourteen or fifteen, and there was something about her that seemed familiar … he couldn’t put his finger …

She interrupted his thoughts. “You _are_ the Doctor, right?”

If it had been anyone else, he would have lied—not that it would have done him much good; the human clothes probably gave him away. But somehow he didn’t expect she was here to arrest him.

“I am.”

Her face lit up with a smile. “I thought so! I’ve been looking for you.”

“You have?”

“My name’s Susan.”

* * *

Susan wasn’t her birth name, she eventually told him. Well, he could have figured that one out for himself. She’d read it in a book about humans and taken a liking to it, planning to choose it at her graduation.

They spent a while talking about her mother and uncle. The Doctor surmised that most of his genes seemed to have skipped a generation—Susan’s mother was not impressed with her daughter’s untempered curiosity or fascination with humans. Susan herself, however, looked at her grandfather with adoring eyes and the Doctor felt his hearts stirring in a way they hadn’t been in a very, very long time.

And so they left Gallifrey together, in the TARDIS. The ship itself seemed warmer and more welcoming just from Susan’s presence.

He didn’t feel guilty, taking her away from her parents, her schooling, her planet. He knew now he’d done the right thing, letting his children go all those years ago; they were clearly better off without him in their lives. But Susan was a misfit, too; her place was with him.

Thoughts of death and regeneration left his mind because she was so full of life, so eager and passionate. As time passed, the years of pent-up anger and bitterness subsided, and he felt energised as he saw the universe afresh in a new light.

She had saved him, he knew that. Maybe he wouldn’t live any longer than he would have had she not found him, but nevertheless she was his salvation.


End file.
